The National Australian Pharmacy Students’ Association (NAPSA) represents more than 7,000 pharmacy students across 19 pharmacy schools in Australia and consists of their 19 respective local pharmacy student associations.
The Association is student-run and represents one of the few national health student bodies in Australia. NAPSA is a founding member of the Health Students Alliance (HSA) and a leader in the campaign to end placement poverty.
NAPSA established the Health Students Alliance to advocate for the end of placement poverty for pharmacy and allied health students across Australia. Today, students across pharmacy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology, and other allied health professions are required to complete up to 1,000 hours of unpaid clinical placements.
These unpaid requirements often force students to pay for placement travel and accommodation out of pocket, skip meals, endure rental stress, struggle with the cost of living or even abandon their studies entirely. Over the past year, the federal government introduced the Commonwealth Prac Payments for nursing, midwifery, teaching, and social work students, but excluded pharmacy and allied health students.
Since then, the HSA was formed in January 2025 during their annual pharmacy student conference, NAPSA Congress 2025 in Brisbane. Over 40 student organisations have since joined the HSA. In March the NAPS officially launched their campaign during the 2025 Federal Election, calling on the Government and Opposition to match their commitments to Medicare with necessary expansion of Commonwealth Prac Payments.
Australian Women’s Health Alliance alongside NAPSA are advocating to end placement poverty for health students.